A Change of Perspective
by FTEcho 4
Summary: Spiritverse. So the story is over, and that means that our heroes get their Happily Ever After, right? Misty sure seems to think so, and it's doing a lot of harm. Seems like somebody is going to have to get down there and teach her to count her blessings.


Um… it's almost Thanksgiving, and I think this story fits the bill for a Thanksgiving story quite nicely. It'd probably be better for Christmas, but since I'm going to be gone from late November to late January, I figure I'd better publish it now. Anyway, this is another story out of the Spiritverse, my personal universe of stories that continue off of **Of Creation and Destruction**. And I'm sorry to say that if you haven't read that one, this story isn't going to be _near_ as fun for you. I use characters from it with no explanation and allude to the novel with impunity. It just worked better that way. I tried explaining things, but it just didn't work. Sorry. You can still _enjoy_ this story without reading it, but the characters of Natty and Brian will just be random names to you, and God help you if you want to understand the business with spirits and Team Galactic. It's weird… I meant for this to be a comedy, but when I started writing it, it just came out as a drama. But I've chattered too much. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story!

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**A Change of Perspective**

_A Tale from the Spiritverse_

In a dense forest in the Johto region, just outside of Mahogany Town…

"_Ugh!"_

Misty Waterflower was in a bad mood.

"Okay, calm down," Ash counseled her in an attempt to head off the coming storm.

Pikachu rolled his tiny eyes from the top of Ash's hat. _Yes, Ash, just tell her to calm down. That __**always**__ works._ He pulled his ears down to try and block out the coming argument.

Ash continued on the same doomed course with, "It's not that bad, Misty!"

Of course, that _would_ be the thing to set her off. "No! Everything's fine!" She exploded, turning to face her irritating boyfriend. "I _love_ being lost in the forest again! It's fantastic! Being _surrounded_ by a million trees and all the horrible, disgusting Bug Pokémon around them is _exactly_ how I wanted to spend my day!"

"I'm sorry, Misty!" Ash replied. "I'm doing my best! I just thought-"

"No, you didn't, because you don't _think!_" She interrupted. She spun back and started walking away furiously as she continued yelling at him, leaving Ash scrambling to catch up. "Really, how many times have you tried to take a shortcut before? A hundred? A thousand? And how many times has it ever actually benefited _anybody_?"

Unfortunately, because her tirade was taking her full attention, Misty didn't notice a relatively small root in the ground before her. And so she tripped over it.

"_Ah!_" Her ankle twisted awkwardly as she fell onto the damp floor, and instantly she rolled onto her back, her hands flying down to the injured limb.

"Pi ka!"

"Misty!" The argument forgotten, Ash was on his knees beside her in a heartbeat, concern in his voice and on his face. Pikachu leapt down to stand beside him.

"Don't touch…" Misty growled. Then she moaned as a wave of pain shot up her leg.

"Let me see it." Ash kept his hands well away from her leg, knowing that Misty would make him feel ten times as much pain if he caused her any.

The pain was already lessening a bit, and so Misty took her hands away so that he could examine the injury.

"Hmm…" Ash murmured, moving around so he could see it without moving her leg. "I don't see anything wrong… it's not swelling too much, but it's a little red. I don't think it's broken, either." He looked up at her eyes. "How bad is it?"

She moved it a little. "It was pretty bad for a second, but I think I'm okay now. Help me up."

Ash stood up and held out a hand, which she grasped. Slowly, she rose on her good leg. She put the other on the ground slowly, and tested it. Ash moved back, and she took a step. "Yeah," she said brightly. "I'm fine."

On the second step, her weight shifted back on the bad leg, and a knife struck through the ankle. Her leg buckled, and if not for Ash's quick move to catch her, she would have fell flat on her face.

"No, I don't think you are," Ash replied. "I think we're done for today."

"We can keep going!" Misty urged. "I don't want to spend another night in this damned forest!"

"Misty, you can't _walk_," Ash explained with infinite patience. "And it's getting late anyway. We're done."

"I…" Misty tried to come up with an argument and failed. She settled for crossing her arms and pouting. "Fine. Make camp. See if I care."

After helping Misty sit up against a tree, Ash shrugged off his backpack, and began to pull out camping supplies. He gave Pikachu a quick order to search for kindling, sending the little rodent scurrying off through the trees. Then, as he threw out the tent, Misty tried to rise. Ash looked at her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to set up the tent," she replied, getting to her feet shakily. "I want to help."

Ash dropped the stakes in his hands just in time, rushing to catch Misty as she fell once again.

"Misty, stop!" He scolded. "You need to rest your ankle, and—"

"Let me _GO!_" she commanded roughly, twisting in his arms so that he dropped her. Of course, without any preparation on her part, all this served to do was hit her head on the same tree she had been resting against, which caused her to cry out in pain and anger.

"Stop fighting, Misty!" Ash pleaded. "You're just hurting yourself more!"

"_I'm_ hurting myself!" She screeched in reply as she rubbed the back of her head furiously. "This is all _your_ fault!"

Ash sighed and threw his hands in the air. "I'm sorry! I know it's my fault we're lost, but it's not like you're helping any!"

This lovely tidbit of information sent Misty on a five minute extravaganza of screaming and cursing that it would be better _not_ to recount here. It's not important, anyway.

What _is_ important is how she ended the extravaganza.

"…And, honestly, Ash, sometimes I wish I had just stayed in Cerulean to begin with!"

Ash had barely paid any attention to the rest of the insults she threw his way (he'd heard them all before), but that one was new, and it really _hurt_. He nearly stabbed himself with a tent stake in shock.

"Is that…" Ash stumbled over the words as he faced her. "Is that really how you feel?"

Now, the actual answer to this question was _No, of course not, you idiot, I love you, _but Misty was angry. Truth wasn't her prerogative; she was trying to hurt Ash because she was hurting. So, in her infinite stupidity, she nonchalantly repeated, "Sometimes? Yeah. I do."

"Oh." Ash was at a total loss for anything else to say.

He had never allowed the thought that Misty might not be happy with him to cross his mind, but now… there it was. And now that the thought was there, it was instantly eating away at him.

He needed to be alone.

"Pikachu!" Ash yelled. "Come back!"

From somewhere nearby, they heard him answer, "Pikapi!" as he came running. He burst into the tiny clearing a few moments later, a collection of tiny sticks balanced on his back. Pikachu shook them off in a tiny pile.

"Pikachu, watch Misty," Ash ordered blankly. "I'm going to… go get firewood." A flimsy excuse, considering that several large sticks were scattered through the meadow already, but no one was going to argue after seeing the look on his face.

"Pi," Pikachu agreed quietly. He looked at Misty for an answer to why Ash was so affected, but she turned up her nose. Ash trundled off into the surrounding forest, leaving Misty and Pikachu alone. For a second, Misty really did feel remorse as she watched him go, but a fresh throb from her ankle quickly brought her anger roaring back.

A few minutes of quiet went by, giving Misty plenty of time to contemplate what she had just done.

_Maybe it's not all his fault,_ she thought to herself. _But after all we went through to get him back, I thought it would be easier than this. It was supposed to be better. Didn't we earn it?_ "I just want my happily ever after," Misty said to the trees. "Is that so much to ask after what we've done?"

"Pika?" Pikachu looked at Misty strangely. He didn't understand. "Pik pika chupi?

"It's just a phrase," Misty explained. "It's at the end of a bunch of stories and books and movies." She spoke with an air of importance as she repeated the oft-heard words, "_And they all lived happily ever after._" She shook her head, which only served to make it ache freshly. She covered her eyes with a groan before she continued. "Maybe it's just words, but I've always hoped for that. And after everything that happened when we fought Team Galactic and got Ash his new body, I really thought that we'd get it. But lately things just seem harder. I mean, Ash is back, and I'm glad, but we've been fighting more and more lately, and it makes me wonder… like, maybe it's not meant to be. Maybe we _should_ just be apart."

Pikachu shrugged. "Pika, pi pia pi—"

"Like what, Pikachu?" Misty looked up, to see Pikachu frozen mid-sentence, not moving a muscle.

She followed his frozen eyes, but saw nothing. "What is it? Do you hear something?" Misty strained to hear any movement, but there was only silence. And then she realized that something was wrong, because she didn't hear the normal evening noises of a forest; she literally heard _nothing._

Not the chilly autumn wind that had been blowing gently through the leaves all day. Not the distant noises of Pokémon that were always echoing in these forests.

Just… silence.

And looking around, she could see no movement at all. It was as though time had stopped for everything except her.

"Hello?" Misty yelled. "Can anybody hear me? Ash? Is there—"

In the utter silence of the frozen forest, the light sound of crunching footsteps coming closer ripped through the air like a machine gun.

"Who's there?" Misty shouted. She scooted back against the tree, feeling more than a bit afraid.

"No one of importance!" She heard echoing back. The voice was strangely familiar, though she was sure she'd never heard it before.

"I warn you, I'm a Pokémon trainer, and a pretty damn good one at that!" Misty cautioned the approaching stranger.

"I don't care, Misty! You can't call any Pokémon in a chrono freeze!"

Now Misty was feeling _very_ afraid.

"How do you know me? Hey, if you're causing this, then stop it!" She cried out fearfully. "Just let me go!"

"Don't be afraid. I just need to give you a message," the voice soothed. Then, finally, the speaker came into view.

A young man, maybe a few years older than her, walked into the tiny clearing. He wore plain dark clothes, a featureless blue shirt and jeans and ordinary blue tennis shoes, and his short dark hair and eyes didn't make much of an impression either. The only remarkable facts about him were that he carried a small gray electronic tablet computer, and that even though he was more than a day's travel on foot from any town, he had no travel provisions or supplies.

As soon as he came into view, he stopped walking towards her and smiled wide.

"Who are you?" Misty asked warily. "Are you the reason for all this?"

He looked around at the trees, and he nodded. "I stopped time, because I needed to talk to you. And it's… well, it's just not a good idea for me to mess around with this world too much. I prefer to just let what happens happen, and tell people about it later. But you're starting down a bad road, and I just can't allow you to make such an error. So I decided to intervene. But I'm only going to talk to you. No one else. And since Ash is going to stumble back here long before I plan to leave, I needed to pull the chrono freeze. I don't really like it either…" He looked around again, apparently troubled by the still air. He walked to a falling leaf that had stopped mid-flight, and examined it. "It just seems like cheating." He sighed. "But I'd rather cheat and help than watch you go down in flames."

"What are you talking about? Everything's fine!" Misty argued. "I mean, yeah, I hurt my leg, but other than that…"

The figure shook his head. "It's not what you're doing, it's what you're _thinking_, and more importantly what you've said that's the problem."

"You still haven't said who you are," Misty complained.

"I have a lot of names, to a lot of people," he replied, still entranced by the stopped leaf. He touched it gently, and as soon as he had it fluttered to the ground. He smiled in amusement, then turned to face her. "But when I don't want someone to know my real name, I tell them to call me James."

"So, James… why are you so familiar?" And as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew. "Hey! You look a lot like my friend Brian! And you even sound like him a little. Are you related to him somehow?"

"No, but yes," he replied. "I'm not related to him in any way. You know as well as I do that he has no surviving family, and really, do you think a person like him could do this?" He gestured to the frozen trees around him. "But that being said, we were connected once, more than anyone else in this world… but I've already said too much. That's not why I'm here." James glanced at his tablet and tapped a few lines into it, then looked back at her. "You can stand up now. Your ankle is fine."

"No it isn't. It's…" Misty stopped. She flexed it a few times, pointing the toe and twirling it around. It _was_ fine. She braced herself against the tree behind her and jumped to her feet, hopping on the formerly hurt leg. "Hey, it is! How did you do that?"

"What, stopping time didn't impress you, but something I could have done with ten minutes, an ice pack, and a heating pad does?" James laughed. "You're weird."

"_I'm _weird?" Misty said in disbelief. "What about you?"

"Point taken." James walked around the materials Ash had strewn around, not to mention the still frozen Pikachu, to stand next to Misty. "You ready?"

"For what? The message?"

"Well…" He hesitated. "It's not so much a _message_ as it is a vision. Or something. Have you ever read _A Christmas Carol_?" He started writing on the tablet again.

"Um… I don't know. It doesn't sound familiar," Misty said warily.

"Damn. The analogy would have been useful," James complained. "Ah, well." He looked up again. "So… can you give me a date?"

Misty snorted and rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Listen, I'm flattered, really, but I have a boyfriend. I'd think you would know that; you seem to know everything else."

"No!" James cried in annoyance. "I'm not trying to pick you up, I'm asking for a _date!_ You know, like November 3, 2010, something like that! Something in the last week would be best, though. I don't want to be too far off. Just… the most commonplace day in the last week."

"Oh." Misty blushed at her mistake.

He smiled. "Not that I wouldn't be interested if I had the chance, but I'm… romantically involved, anyway. Not to mention that breaking you and Ash up would be diametrically opposed to the reason I'm here. Speaking of which, can you give me the date?"

"Oh. Um… It's October 22, 3219. So a good date would be… I guess the twentieth, two days ago?"

"October 20, 3219." He wrote the date down, and then looked up at Misty. "Wow. Distant future. I hadn't thought of that. I guess it makes sense, though. Now if I can just figure out how to keep conservation of energy…"

"What are you talking… hey!" Misty looked around. "Mahogany Town?"

And so it was. The forest they had been standing in had been replaced by the familiar old-looking buildings of the town, and the light foot traffic around them showed that people were just starting the day.

"Yes. We're in Mahogany Town two days ago. I wouldn't make such a fuss about it, though." He gestured to the people around them. "They can't hear you, see you, or feel you. They can _smell_ you, though." James tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I've never quite figured that sense out. I tried blocking it, but whenever the traveler got close to people, they always exuded an odor like horrible sour milk. So I…" He looked at Misty. "You're not even paying attention, are you?"

She was still stuck on the first piece of information he had given. "Two days ago… what time?" She looked at the sky, which was still showing signs of the fading sunrise. "Early morning… so that means Ash and I are about to leave the Pokémon Center!"

"Yeah, that's kind of the point. We're going to be following you around and looking at your day. I think the change of perspective will show you a few things about yourself. Come!" And James rose into the air.

"Wha… how are you doing that?" Misty exclaimed.

"I turned on Spirit mode for myself. In case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of omnipotent here." He shrugged, then waved her up with the tablet. "Come on, I did the same to you! Fly!"

Luckily, Misty already knew how to navigate as a spirit, and so it was simple for her to join him in the air. He led her in silence to the Pokémon center, which was still for the most part quiet: trainers hadn't had time to tire out their Pokémon just yet, so all that was going on so far was the departure of those trainers who had spent the night.

"Here it comes…" James said. "Three… two…oneeee…"

Past Ash burst out of the door of the Center followed by an exuberant Past Pikachu and a less-than-thrilled Past Misty.

"Aww, you're the only one who isn't happy," James noted with mock pity. "Why is that?"

"Because at this point, I've already been listening to him gloat about beating Pryce for a whole day!" Misty explained in annoyance. "Do I really have to hear it again?"

"Yep yep!" James replied cheekily. "Shh! You're missing it!"

Past Ash was stretching (or posing, it was hard to tell) with Pikachu to get ready for the day. Both Mistys watched him with disdain, but it was Past Misty who spoke to him.

"Are you almost done?" She asked.

"You can't rush greatness, Misty!" Past Ash exclaimed in reply.

"Pi pikachu!" Past Pikachu agreed.

"Can you rush suckishness, then? Because you've got a lot more of _that_ on your hands!" She retorted.

"Wow, Misty. You had to make up a word just to make a comeback? Not good, Mist. Not good at all." He shook his head in disappointment.

James looked at the normal Misty the same way. "He had you there. That was terrible."

"_You_ shut up! At least it got him to stop!" Misty shot back.

Past Ash faced the road ahead in a battle stance. "Alright! One more badge to go, and then the Silver Conference is mine!"

"Your overconfidence is your weakness," James quoted. In a gravelly voice, he replied to himself, "Your faith in your friends is yours."

"Are you on something?" Misty asked him.

"I'm high on power!" He quipped back merrily. "Now shush! You're missing the fight!"

Past Ash and Misty bickered at each other mercilessly as they left town, with James and Misty floating at a distance. Then they continued bickering unceasingly as they walked through the forest outside town. For a while they stopped to have lunch, but almost as soon as they had got back on the path they were at it again. In the meantime, Misty watched in extreme boredom, while James took notes on the arguments and made casual observations every once in a while. Eventually, though, James got bored as well, and he froze time again.

"I'm guessing it just goes on like this," James said after a long while of silence. "I think I've got enough data.

"Not usually, though!" Misty said to him. "We've fought, yeah, but not _this_ much!"

"Hmm…" James looked at his tablet again. "Yeah, you're right. Your average arguing time per day used to be about seventy-one minutes a day, which isn't too much for two people who are as stubborn as you two _and_ always together."

"And today?" Misty asked.

"Well, so far, you've argued for seven hours, and you've been awake for seven hours and forty-three minutes. Of that time, you fought about whether Gyarados could beat Charizard or Pikachu for a total of two hours, whether Water-types are superior in _all_ cases for one, what time you should stop for lunch for a good thirty minutes, which way you were going and which way it was to the Ice Path for an hour and a half, thirty minutes on why Ash shouldn't get to navigate…" he looked up at Misty for a moment. "Okay, that one's justified. Anyway, the other thirty minutes were miscellaneous. So, all in all… you've been fighting a lot."

"Exactly!" Misty exclaimed. "And I don't know why!"

"Oh, but I do. And the answer may surprise you! You know, the subject wasn't the only thing I kept track of. I also kept track of some other things. Like… how much time each of you was in control. Would it shock you if I said that you were the driving force behind the argument about ninety percent of the time?"

"What?" Misty cried in disbelief. "No way!"

"Just take a look!" James replied, floating down to the frozen couple. Misty followed him down. "Look at their faces," James added. So she did.

The first thing Misty thought was that she hated the look she wore. She was belligerent and angry, and it wasn't good. Her eyes were hard, her mouth was half open in a yell, and her stance was closed. But when it really sank in was when she looked at Ash. He just looked… miserable. His head was down, his eyes half closed, his shoulders high and he was clearly barely listening to her. Perhaps James had chosen this moment because of that, but that didn't mean she hadn't caused it.

As if she needed any more help feeling horrible, James gave her some more information from behind her. "Ash is trying to stop, you know. For the first few hours, he did it a lot. He's made moves to stop your fights ninety-six times today. Most of the time you've ignored him, a few times you switched topics, and only once, at lunch, did you actually stop. At this point, he's just hoping that if he doesn't fight back, you'll stop." James paused for a second. "He's losing hope, though."

Misty looked at Ash and hated herself. "Why am I doing this?" She said out loud. She reached out a shaking hand to touch Ash's face.

"It's a matter of perspective," James answered. "You've been thinking lately about how much you gave up to be with Ash, what with your top position in Kanto, compared to what he's giving you in return. And you're becoming… not selfish, but you're feeling let down, and you're taking out your frustration on him."

"But…" Misty paused, then turned to face James. "I don't feel let down."

"Not here," James said, tapping his forehead. "But in here," and he tapped the spot over his heart, "you're feeling it. And now that you're robbing your day of the joy it used to have, you're feeling it even more. And of course, that's making you make your days even _worse_. It's a vicious cycle, and one that could be very harmful if unchecked."

"But I don't understand. How do I stop?" Misty asked. "I don't know why I'm feeling that way."

"But I do," James said softly. "You've lost focus. You're thinking about the future, and not the present. If you did, you'd realize that Ash is giving his all to make you happy right now. Or," he added, looking at Past Ash over Misty's shoulder, "he was, at least. With how you've been acting lately, he's been working to preserve what you already have more than anything else. Because as much as you say he's dense, he's realized a lot of things about your relationship lately that you seem to be missing. Like how much damage you've been doing."

The scene around Misty and James changed back to the clearing where they had met. But this time, another Misty and Ash were fighting, with Misty's back to the tree again and Ash trying to put stakes in the ground.

"Watch Ash closely," James said. Time started again.

Past Misty was still yelling. "…And, honestly, Ash, sometimes I wish I had just stayed in Cerulean to begin with!"

With her better view of Ash than she had had in the past, Misty was able to see his eyes shoot wide. She saw him forget about the stake and almost hurt himself with it. She saw him whip around to ask, "Is that… Is that really how you feel?"

And she got to see his eyes go dark and his spirit crumple as her past callously replied, "I do."

When Ash's eyes went down to the ground, James stopped the scene again.

"Do you see it now?" He asked.

Misty turned to him, tears in her eyes, and nodded.

"You're hurting him like this more than you could possibly know," James said. "But this is the worst so far. He's always, always thought you were happy with him. But now he's entertaining the thought that you might not be, and it's destroying him."

She glanced back at Ash. "Can you undo this?"

James sighed. "I could. Hell, I'd like to. But I won't."

"Why?" She asked. "He doesn't deserve this. He doesn't deserve _me_. He could have someone who wouldn't hurt him like this…"

"I won't change something so small. It happened, and it was supposed to happen. Getting through it (if you _do_ get through it) will make you better people."

"How?" Misty demanded. "By splitting us up? If that's how this is supposed to end, why did we have to go through all this to begin with? Why couldn't we have just… lived?"

"What would you prefer?" James asked. "Would you really rather Ash had died? That he was gone?"

"No!" Misty said. "I mean… maybe… I don't know! I just think he could have had better than this!"

"Could he?" James said simply.

The forest around them disappeared again, this time turning to utter darkness. The only things Misty could see were James and herself.

"There are worlds within worlds, Misty," James said, his voice sounding strangely dull in the void. "Be careful not to stray too far from the familiar..."

"What is this?" Misty asked. "Where are we?"

James looked around. "Nonexistence. The space between worlds. The End of All and Nothing. Literally, we are… nowhere."

"That's impossible," Misty argued.

"It's the truth," James argued back.

Misty didn't have anything to counter that.

"Now…" James began. "The Many Worlds theorem of Quantum Dynamics states that whenever a particle has a choice of two or more actions, it does both. At least, it does one in one world, and all the other options in different ones. Extrapolating, whenever a choice is made, it is made in every conceivable direction in some number of worlds."

"Spare me the science lecture," Misty intoned.

James sighed. "I'm telling you that there are alternate realities. If you can conceive it, there is a world where it happens."

"World of Water Pokémon?" Misty said hopefully.

"Yes, but no I won't take you there!" James rubbed his temples. "I'm going to show you some of the possibilities that _could_ have happened between you, Ash, and the world in general."

"Like what?" Misty asked.

"First? Well, I'm going to show you if Ash died. And I don't mean he became a spirit and wandered forever." James shivered. "That world exists, but I don't want to consider that kind of torment. In this one, he moved on. So… here's October 22, 3239, in that world. The scene is Cerulean Gym."

And Cerulean Gym was before them. But not the garish, rainbow bright Cerulean Gym that Misty knew. It was the one she had always dreamed of, but never had quite enough money or time to create: a cool blue exterior that was more reminiscent of Atlantis than some sort of children's show.

"Well, this isn't looking too bad so far," Misty said. "What's the big problem, James?"

She got no answer. Looking around, she couldn't see James at all. She was alone.

"Um… James? Hello? Stranding me in another world isn't funny, you know!"

She stood on her tiptoes, and as she turned in search of him, she saw someone walk towards the gym. She started towards them, but it was soon obvious that it wasn't him. It was someone with long red hair and a thin, dark blue dress. And as she got closer, she found that she recognized the person.

"It's… me!" Misty exclaimed. "Wow… I look good in the future!"

She was standing in Future Misty's path as she examined herself, and it came as a rude shock when the alternate version stepped partially around her, knocking her to the ground.

"Wha… hey!" Misty stood up. "What did you do that for?"

"Stay out of my way, kid!" she heard the familiar voice reply.

"Wow… I'm not that big a jerk, am I?" Misty asked herself. "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it isn't me." She followed the woman into Cerulean Gym.

Another familiar face was at the front desk. An older version of Natalia Brown wasn't something Misty had ever thought about, but she seemed to have aged gracefully as well: other than a few lines around her eyes, she looked much the same as she had at seventeen.

"Misty!" Natty exclaimed, standing as the older version walked in. "Dear Arceus, it's been forever since you visited! Why… what has it been, fifteen years?"

"It's Master Waterflower," Future Misty said coldly. "And I need to talk to Leader Edwards."

"Oh, come on, Misty," Natty replied. "You don't need to be so official. We're friends here!"

Future Misty curled up her nose at Natty's insistence on ignoring her rank. "If you're not going to get him, I'll go do it myself," she remarked.

Natty seemed taken aback by Misty's distant behavior at last. "No… Master Waterflower. I'll go fetch him." As she stepped back from behind the counter, she laid eyes on the younger Misty at last. For a moment she had a look on her face as though she was trying to remember a name she had long since forgotten, but then she simply said, "I'll be with you in a moment, sweetie," and she scurried away from the imposing Water Master dominating the lobby.

_Wow…_ Misty thought. _I'm a water Master, apparently, but what's happened to me? I'm… no, __**she**__ is so cold. She seems more like an ice Master than one of water. And Brian and Natty are running the Cerulean Gym? I wonder where my sisters are? Probably touring still…_

Brian and Natty came back into the lobby. Apparently he wasn't done growing in Misty's time, because he was a good half-foot taller here. But his stature wasn't reflected in his mood: he seemed… cowed, almost, as he looked at Master Waterflower.

"Master, I'm sorry," he said; apparently he already knew why she was here. "I've done my best, but your new requirements are ridiculous! I know we're not the best gym in the world—"

"And that is why we at the League have decided to shut Cerulean's Gym down," Master Waterflower said.

"You're doing _what_?" Natty cried.

"We will only allow the best of the best to be members of the Kanto Pokémon League!" Misty said, raising her voice over Natty's outcry. "You're not the only gym that hasn't measured up to our new standards. I've just come from Pewter's Gym, and Brock at least—"

"Brock too?" Natty asked in disbelief. "Misty, what are you doing? You're evicting all your friends, and for what?"

"It's okay, love," Brian said softly to Natty. "We'll get through this." He rose his voice to match Master Waterflower. "We'll fight this, you know. I know my rights; I can appeal to the Pokémon League."

For the first time, Future Misty smiled, although there was certainly no joy in it. "Fool… I _am_ the Pokémon League. I'm the longest reigning Master: do you have any idea how much control I have?

"Too much, I'd say," Natty spat in defiance.

"Be that as it may, my order stands." Master Waterflower held out a pale hand. "Your license, if you'd be so kind."

Brian pulled out his wallet and tore a card from within it, and pressed it into her palm. "Take good care of that," he hissed. "I'll be getting it back very soon."

"We'll see." Her business done, Future Misty turned to leave. "We'll be deciding on new leaders for the displaced gyms in the next month or so. You have until that decision is made to find a new home. Goodbye." She walked through the glass doors of the gym.

"And good riddance," Natty yelled after her. She turned to embrace her husband. "Oh, Brian, what's happened to her?"

"I don't know," Brian replied with a heavy heart. "She's been getting worse and worse for years. Ever since her sisters—"

"Crap crap crap, stopping it there!"

James' voice rang out as time froze again. He appeared next to the young Misty, who had been watching these events in shocked silence, tapping his tablet computer furiously.

"Sorry about disappearing like that, but I really thought you should see it alone, so—"

"No, wait, what was that?" She demanded. "My sisters? What happened to my sisters?"

James sighed. "Damn it… I wasn't going to show you this… Follow me."

He led her out and around the gym, to the back. In the very back, Misty saw a small stone monument with three stars…

"_No!_"

She cried out as she ran to it, but that did nothing to change what was engraved on the stones.

_In memory of Daisy, Violet, and Lily Waterflower._

A carving of several Water Pokémon crying over the loss of the three Sensational Sisters completed the display.

"No." Misty fell to her knees. "What…"

"What happened?" James completed as he walked up behind her. "Well… they were in Sinnoh, like a lot of people. When… perhaps it's better if you just see." He snapped his fingers.

For an instant, Misty thought they had returned to the nothingness, but soon she realized that she was looking at the starry sky. She turned around to see the world before her, gleaming beautifully. But one spot seemed marred. An enormous crater lay in the middle of a large region of the world.

"How did _this_ happen just because Ash left?" Misty asked.

"You fail to realize what a huge impact stopping Team Galactic had," James explained. "You see, in this world, they almost succeeded. Without you, Ash, Brock, Natalia, and Brian in their way, they were never discovered until it was very nearly too late. Several Masters came together to stop them in the end, but they were not armed with the Azure Flute, and so they couldn't summon Arceus to calm Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina. The world was… devastated. Eventually Arceus came, when the magnitude of destruction became so great that it was noticeable across time and space, but by that time most of Sinnoh had been obliterated by the black hole. And stopping it at that point almost killed him, too." James paused. "Your sisters… were on tour in Sinnoh. Eterna City, actually. Very close to Mount Coronet. If it makes you feel any better, they were asleep when it hit them; they never knew what had happened."

Misty was amazed and horrified by the sheer scope of the devastation. "How many…" She asked vacantly.

"The death toll was four million, six hundred twelve thousand, two hundred and one. At least, they were assumed dead. Black holes don't leave bodies, so…" James shrugged.

"And me? What happened to me?"

"Well, you were pretty messed up already, and that was just the straw that broke the Numel's back," James said. "You have a lot of love and a lot of ambition, Misty. But when your family died, you didn't have anyone to give that love to, or perhaps you were just afraid to give it to anyone. And love unshared withers away. Eventually that left you with nothing but ambition. And you were great. You gave the gym to Brian so you could have more time to train, and train is what you did. After a while, you got tired of waiting for a member of the Elite Four to retire and you took the League challenge yourself. By that time you were heartless, but that didn't diminish your skills any: you dominated the gyms, you dominated the league, you beat the Elite Four so easily that people _still_ wonder if you cheated nearly seventeen years later. You didn't, of course. And so in the end, you were the Water Master of Kanto, the most powerful trainer in the world, exactly what you'd always dreamed… and you were completely miserable."

"And the gym closings?" Misty asked.

"Well, as time went by, you were still obsessed with being the best. But you were already the best by far. So you decided that the only way to keep testing yourself, and thereby keep improving, was to make your opponents better, in the hope that one day someone as hard to beat as you might ascend to your level and provide a real challenge. So…" James shook his head. "You used your rank in the Pokémon League to push through incredibly tough standards for gyms. In the name of making the Kanto League better, of course. And so now, you—"

"Stop saying _you_!" Misty cried out suddenly. "That is _not_ me! It never was, and it never will be!"

"And why is that, Misty?" James asked politely.

"Because _I_ know there are more important things than battling Pokémon! Things like love, and family, and being a good person! I would never, ever give those up just so I could be a better trainer!"

"Oh?" James said. "So you would be happy with just a good life? Love, family, and being a good person: having all that would be worth giving up your dream?"

"Of course it would!" Misty finished sincerely.

James grinned and clapped once. "And _that_ is what you needed to realize."

The world below them changed. The crater vanished, and the enormous Mount Coronet and the surrounding towns took its place.

"What… what world is this?" Misty asked hopefully.

James smiled and nodded at it. "Yours."

"Oh… So you don't have any other worlds to show me?"

"Well, I did," James said, laughing. "But you reached the conclusion I was driving you to so quickly that I didn't have time!"

Out of curiosity, Misty asked, "What other worlds are there?"

James rolled his eyes. "Everything and anything you can imagine. Now, as far as likelihood goes, there are a few that have quinvigintillions of iterations, which is a lot, with minor to major changes. You're actually from an offshoot world: in the most common world following Ash Ketchum and you, Ash lived through that attack from Mewtwo and went on to go through many, many more adventures. I think he saved the world about ten times, and died at least six, minor variations notwithstanding. You'd be surprised at how many worlds he ends up with you or some version of you in; it's about seventy-nine percent of the ones in which you both exist at the same time, which is ridiculously high for any world tree."

"Can you show me?" Misty asked.

"Um…"James looked very hesitant. "I suppose it wouldn't kill you…"

Suddenly they were in a blank white room. Not an infinite white space or anything, just a relatively small room. In the middle were two plush crimson chairs. James took a seat in one, and Misty followed and sat in the other one.

"Um…" Misty said. "So…"

"Yeah, I'm not going to take you to all the other ones. That would be really hard," James said. "You realize that travelling through time and parallel dimensions isn't _easy_, right? If it was, everybody would do it. It'd be fun. But it's not. It's really hard. I can do it, but it makes my brain hurt." He typed something on the tablet, and a television screen dominated one of the room's walls. "Viewing them is a lot easier." He pointed his tablet at the TV like an oversized remote, and it clicked on.

Misty didn't know how long they spent watching the other worlds. Sometimes she would look back and it would seem like an instant had passed, and others it felt like they'd been there for ten thousand years. Time was off doing something else, (its taxes, perhaps,) and definitely not keeping a tight hold on the room they were in. But the images on the walls kept her transfixed. A thousand lifetimes, ten thousand lifetimes, a million ways for Ash and her to come together. Many of them were similar: a blurted confession in a crowded stadium, a quick word almost missed on a dusty road. Some were sad: the deathbed affirmations, the loves that were torn away in their prime.

A few were so fantastic that they stuck in her head:

A poorly spoken explanation of affection atop a colorful collection of crystals…

A terrible evening suddenly made perfect on a starlit balcony…

A pair of dives from a tower of ice, one forced by another's malice, and one spurred by love…

An almost-missed proposal after a terrible accident…

And a lucky escape from a terrible fate that gave them both a chance to start again…

Finally, the scene stopped its rapid shift.

She watched herself and Ash walk down a deserted road, alone save for Pikachu. He said something stupid about training, and she laughed, and he wrapped her in a hug while she kissed him. It wasn't an epic romance, but it was still nice… still love.

"What's this one?" Misty asked. "We've been on it for a long time." She looked over at James, only to find that he was watching her, not the screen, with great intensity.

"Would you like to live there?" He asked. "Do you think that life would be a happy one?"

Misty looked back at the loving couple on the screen. "Yeah… I think I would like that. What happened in that world?"

"That's you, Misty."

"Me?" Misty said in wonder, whipping her head to look at her omnipotent acquaintance. "You mean… not another me, but the real me? The one I am?"

James nodded, and gave her the smallest of smiles. "The very same."

"When?" She asked. "How far in the future is this?"

"Future?" He chuckled once. "Misty, this image is from September 5, 3219. Just over a month ago."

"Yeah… I remember that!" Misty exclaimed. Now that she realized it was her, the memories were coming back to her. "We were coming back from Olivine Town, heading east towards Ecruteak, and he was talking about how easy it was going to be in the Silver League… and I asked him why, and he said that it was because he had me to coach him and cheer for him, and how could he lose with that kind of advantage?" Her smile put the brightness of the room to shame, and her eyes shone with almost-tears at the memory.

"I think you understand now," James said. He stood up, and Misty followed him once more. The room dissolved into the clearing, the one they had started in, but this time Misty's spot was vacant, and Pikachu was once again frozen mid-word.

"So…" James said, as he helped Misty back into her spot at the base of the tree, "what did you learn?"

"Happily ever after is just a phrase. There's no such thing. But… my ending could be happy. I'm just not there yet."

"And you never will be, until the real end. That's when you look back and say, 'I had a good life.' Unless you didn't. But with Ash, you have a better chance than almost anyone in the multiverse. Doesn't mean that you'll ever not have to work for it, but… well, you've got a bit of an easier ride."

"And I couldn't ask for better than that, could I?" Misty asked.

"Nope. Well, you could," James added, "but you'd have to be a bit of a bitch."

"You're a weird guy, James," Misty said with a laugh.

Busy typing on his tablet, he nodded. "Yeah, I get that a lot."

"What have you been writing this whole time, anyway?" Misty asked.

"Well…" again, he hesitated, but then he shrugged. "Nah, it won't hurt anything either." He flicked the page down a few times, then handed it to her. And she read:

* * *

_**A Change of Perspective**_

A Tale from the Spiritverse

_In a dense forest in the Johto region, just outside of Mahogany Town…_

"Ugh!"

_Misty Waterflower was in a bad mood…_

And it went that way all the way down the page, until it stopped at:

"_You're a weird guy, James," Misty said._

_Busy typing on his tablet, he nodded. "Yeah, I get that a lot."_

* * *

"What the hell?" Misty asked, handing it back. "You've been writing all this down?"

"Yep. I told you, I watch what happens, and tell people about it later. It's a pretty good system." He laughed as he wrote. "This is so meta."

"So…" Misty asked, with just a little bit of fear in her voice, "what does that make me? Am I just… a story?"

"No," James answered resolutely. "I refuse to believe that. You're as real as I am. After all, what proof do I have that _my_ life isn't someone else's story? And so on? Of course, questions like _that_ are why I can't allow you to remember me."

Misty's ambivalent gaze became an angry glare. "What? You're going to erase—"

"Your memories of a person whose name is not James who writes about you. The lesson you learned, the one that should make sure you don't spiral down and kill your relationship with Ash, will stay with you. You'll forget how you learned it, exactly, because knowing that but not remembering me would confuse your mind too much." He smiled apologetically. "It's less a big deal than you think: people learn things and forget how they learned them all the time. It's part of how we keep our minds clutter-free… ish."

"So… I won't see you again?" Misty asked.

"I dunno," James said. "Probably not. I won't interfere with major plot points, so I can't show up when something big goes down. But… well, you might see me again. You won't know who I am, of course."

One last question occurred to her. "Then have I seen you before?"

"You? No. But I have appeared one other time to someone you know. When Brian was tied up in Team Galactic's base, I was the one who bound his wrists," he said proudly. That didn't help mitigate her glare any. "The guy who normally did it usually did it too tight," James explained. "He had a nasty tendency to break people's wrists. And that was the kind of thing that Brian really didn't need at the moment, so I stepped in. Just did a looser knot, and gave my tight-tying friend back his uniform."

"You…" she seemed lost for words for a second before recovering with "You're weird."

"Yeah, I know," James laughed.

And with that last laugh, he varnished.

"What the…" Misty blinked. "Did you just get shinier?"

"Uh…" James looked at his hand. It _was_ shiny. He sniffed it, and his nose wrinkled in distaste. "Wood varnish?" He glanced back at his tablet, and cursed. "Freaking Autocorrect! I said…"

He vanished!

"—chuka, pika pi, pika pikachu."

"Uh… huh." Misty couldn't figure out why, but suddenly she felt a lot different. "You know, I think you're right. Maybe I've been putting too much stake into this happily ever after thing… not to mention all the fighting and stuff I've been doing lately… and what did I say to Ash just now?" She put a hand to her mouth as she realized how hurt he must be. "Oh, Arceus! Pikachu, can you go get him? I want to, but with this leg…" She frowned. She twisted her ankle around. "Wait… actually… it doesn't hurt anymore…" She stood up, testing it. She rubbed where she had whanged her head earlier. "And my head is fine, too!"

(Crap, I forgot to un-heal those injuries! Oh, well, I guess they're rolling with it, so too late now…)

After wondering how she had healed for a few seconds, she remembered why she was getting up in the first place. "Stay with the campsite, Pikachu, I'll be back in a minute!"

With her somehow-healed leg, Misty took off into the forest, calling Ash's name. And within thirty seconds, she ran into him.

Literally: he was running back to the camp, worrying that she was in trouble, and as she rounded a tree they collided. Somehow, Ash was the one knocked down, and he ended up on the forest floor with Misty on top of him.

"Misty, what are you doing up?" Ash asked.

"I don't know!" she replied breathlessly. "I just stood up, and it didn't hurt anymore, I swear!"

"Considering how fast you ran into me, I'm willing to believe you."

"Oh, yeah…" Misty suddenly became painfully aware of her position on top of Ash. She pushed herself to her feet, then gave Ash a hand up. They dusted themselves off. Then they stood awkwardly for a moment before Ash found something to say.

"Misty… you know you can leave whenever you want, right?" Though he was trying to be the better man, the pain was showing clearly on Ash's face as he considered that she might just take him up on the offer.

She smiled sadly. "Yeah, Ash. I know." She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him before adding, "But why would I ever want to leave you?"

"Misty…"

"I'm sorry," she said. "I had a revelation tonight. I've been a terrible person to be around lately, haven't I?"

"No, Misty!" Ash protested.

"Oh, shut up," she replied with a smile. "I've fought you for no reason and I've barely shown you any affection at all. I've been selfish and self-centered and stupid. And I don't know what it took to make me realize that, but maybe it was that terrible lie I said back there. Ash, there is nowhere in any world I'd rather be than right here with you."

"Really?" Ash said. His eyes glowed.

"Really." And she kissed him again.

They walked back to where Pikachu was waiting for them at the campsite, set up their tent, and for the first night in quite a while, they each slept both well and together.

And while it can't really be said that they lived happily ever after, as Misty had so fervently hoped, it can be said that they worked hard, and lived well. And really, can you ask for more than that?

Although… I guess you _could…_ But…

Well, you know the rest.

_The End_

* * *

So? What did you think? Was it good? Bad? Great? Atrocious? You did read it, right?

This was a **lot** of fun to write. I did most of it in a single sitting, and all but a couple hundred words or so in a single day. At first, I was going to have it be just Misty talking about her day, but I couldn't get the point of view right. So I decided to do the _It's a Wonderful Life _treatment, and I think it turned out pretty good. It took me a little while to decide who would be Clarence in that analogy, but eventually I decided, "Well, hell. I'll just do it myself." And so I did.

What did you think? Tell me, come on! Just click that little review button down there, and write me a few words about what you thought.

That's it for me! I'll catch you in some other story, my dear readers! Hopefully I'll finish at least one other chapter or story before I leave the twenty-third, but if not, I'll see you after January!

James


End file.
